Costs and exchange rates with China buying agents, where the freight mode shows up
Service fees are mostly gone; exchange margins and freight rules are where agents still differ. Freight prices themselves stay on the agent's estimator.
Where the money goes on one order
An agent order has a short list of costs, and it helps to see them in the order you pay them. First the item itself and the seller's shipping to the agent's warehouse. Then any service fee; on the standard marketplaces, all six agents on this site charged none in the October 2026 measurement. Then optional extras you choose, such as more photos or special packing.
Last comes the parcel: international freight for the line you pick, set by weight, line and destination, plus a small fixed customs paperwork charge per parcel at some agents; LoongBuy lists it as usually RMB 8. Storage costs nothing until the free period ends. And under all of it sits the exchange rate, because your payment is in one currency and every agent price is in yuan.
Freight is the one cost this site never quotes. It changes by weight step, line and week, and the agent's own estimator is the only place to see it for your parcel on the day.
Exchange-rate margins measured in October
Because the service fee is zero almost everywhere, price differences come down to conversion. Your money arrives in your own currency and each agent turns it into yuan at a rate it sets itself; the distance between that rate and the interbank midpoint is a markup on everything you spend there, freight included. The figures below were independently measured in October 2026, from a table its makers dated 2 October.
| Agent | Exchange margin over mid-market | Free storage |
|---|---|---|
| JoyaGoo | +12.1% | 90 days |
| Kakobuy | +8.5% | 100 days |
| LoongBuy | +2.0% | 90 days |
| Lovegobuy | +8.3% | 60 days |
| Oopbuy | +12.2% | 90 days |
| Superbuy | +8.6% | 90 days |
Margins move. Agents adjust their rates, and a promotion can change the effective figure for a while. Treat the table as a snapshot: check the rate your agent shows against an interbank quote the same day you add funds, and remember that a 10 percent margin on a large haul is real money.
Compensation rates that change with the mode
When a parcel is lost, many agents pay by weight rather than by what was inside, and the rate depends on the mode. LoongBuy's table, without paid cover, refunds the shipping fee and pays parcel weight multiplied by RMB 80 per kilogram for air and express parcels, or by RMB 40 per kilogram for sea, rail and the road or chartered-air group. A partial loss uses the same two rates on the weight of the missing items. Damage to goods is handled as a claim against the carrier.
Two things follow. A light parcel of costly items recovers little on a weight base, so the paid cover some agents offer, which pays on item value, matters more for small dense hauls. And moving the same parcel from air to rail halves the base, which is part of the real price of a slow lane.
Delay is treated separately. Fansbuy refunds 20 percent of the shipping fee on insured parcels that pass 60 days, Brazil excepted, but not on rail, sea or two China Post economy services.
The fee you pay before a custom route has a price
Custom rail and sea routes carry one cost that standard lines do not: an operation fee charged before anyone tells you the freight. Oopbuy and ACBuy both state 20 yuan first, with the final freight set after the parcel is packed. Superbuy's description of its custom services does not mention a fee before the quote.
Twenty yuan is small against the freight on a heavy haul and large against a light one, which is another way of saying custom routes are for big parcels. Ask for one when the packed parcel is heavy or oversized, when you have weeks to spare, and when the standard lines on your agent's estimator do not cover what you need.
